Couvade syndrome: Your partner’s sympathetic pregnancy

Has your man started complaining of nausea and tiredness, or even begun eating for two? Then he could well be suffering from a ‘sympathetic pregnancy’ or couvade syndrome (coming from the French word meaning ‘to hatch’). A bone-fide medical condition, some men are so in tune with their partner’s pregnancy that they exhibit mood swings, morning sickness, food cravings and leg and back pain at the same time as their partner.

Dr Arthur Brennan of Kingston University, London, studied 282 fathers-to-be and found that 55% experienced symptoms usually felt by a mother-to-be. Here’s how to find out whether your man is going through a couvade pregnancy.

What are the symptoms of Couvade syndrome?

Couvade symptoms often appear in a man during the third month of a woman’s pregnancy, worsening just before birth, and then ceasing when the baby is born. A guy might experience the same symptoms as his partner, including nausea, cramps, food cravings, weight gain, tiredness, constipation and vomiting. Some men are more likely to suffer a sympathetic pregnancy if they (or their partner) suffered infertility problems before the pregnancy or if the man was adopted as a child.

Why is it becoming more common?

The number of men suffering from a sympathetic pregnancy appears to be growing, with experts thinking it comes down to changing views on fatherhood, with many men now taking a more active role in pregnancy and birth and becoming more emotionally and physically involved. Often occurring in sensitive men, scientists believe the symptoms arise because of the deep empathy that a man has towards his partner and the changes that she’s going through.

Psychological reasons

In the past it was believed sympathetic pregnancies were mainly due to psychological reasons, such as a man’s physical expression of anxiety around the birth, or just an assertion of fatherhood. New research shows it may be more to do with hormones, with recent studies discovering that a man cohabitating with a pregnant female experiences hormonal shifts in prolactin, cortisol, and testosterone, often happening at the end of the first trimester of her pregnancy and continuing for weeks after the birth.

Dads get breastfeeding hormones too

One of the most important studies in recent years, conducted by Dr Brennan confirmed that a couvade pregnancy may by due to elevated levels of the mothering hormone prolactin in men. Usually associated with breastfeeding mothers, he found it was also present in fathers, rising by 20% when dads cuddle their newborn babies immediately after birth.

A second hormonal change occurs in men around the time of childbirth, with testosterone levels dropping as birth approaches. Scientists concluded that father and infant bonding is instinctive and that couvade pregnancy could well be a side-effect of pregnancy, with hormonal changes affecting some men as much as women.

What can men can do about it?

Men can reduce the symptoms of a couvade pregnancy by becoming more involved in their partner’s pregnancy, sharing their feelings with their partner and discussing it with a doctor. Men can also deal with the physical symptoms of couvade in the same way pregnant women have done for eons, by eating dry crackers, drinking ginger tea or ginger beer to combat nausea, rising out of bed slowly and getting some extra rest when fatigue kicks in.